Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to wireless communication systems, and more particularly, to handovers under cell identifier confusion, e.g., physical cell identity (PCI) confusion.
Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, broadcasts, and so on. A PCI identifies a cell within a network. Due to the limited number of PCIs that are allowed, two different types of PCI conflicts are possible with PCI assignments, e.g., PCI collision and PCI confusion. PCI collision occurs when neighboring cells are assigned the same PCI. PCI confusion occurs when two neighbors of a cell are assigned the same PCI. When a base station (e.g., a small cell) has to identify a target cell during handover of a UE to another base station, it may use PCIs to help identify the target cell. However, when two or more neighboring cells have the same PCI, PCI confusion exists. Therefore, there is a desire for correctly determining the target cell that is under PCI confusion during handovers at a base station.